1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to sanitary dispensers of consumer products and more particularly to dispensers for foodstuffs and other dispensible products having a spiral auger blade conveyor.
2. Description of Prior Art
The bulk handling of various consumer products including snack foods and other foodstuffs in health and grocery stores is usually accomplished by use of open top containers and scoops. In particular, a customer will normally scoop out the desired quantity of a product and place it in a plastic or paper bag for weighing and price determination purposes. For example, snack foods of this type may include raisins, other types of dried fruit, malt balls, cookies, nuts, various candies and the like. Other dispensible products include hardware products and medical supplies, for example.
Conventional containers of this type are unsanitary and inconvenient since the foodstuff is exposed to ambient dirt, dust and vermin, and potential customer contamination, for example. Various dispensing apparatus have been proposed to alleviate the problems of sanitation. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,920,796 and 4,511,067 each disclose a dispenser that utilizes a paddle-wheel type of conveying member for dispensing measured quantities of foodstuffs. U.S. Pat. No. 2,550,248 discloses a dispenser that includes a reciprocal tray for effecting the dispensing function. U.S. Pat. No. 2,593,803 discloses another type of dispenser wherein a screw conveyor shaft is utilized to dispense finely divided products such as sugar or salt, into a receptacle that is emptied by tipping the dispenser. Applicant's prior patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,790,457 and 4,802,609 each disclose a dispenser having an elongated rotary screw conveyor mounted therein.
Dispensing apparatus of the above type are relatively complex in construction and operation and may give rise to clogging and related problems. Each dispenser is normally constructed to dispense with a single type of foodstuff product and is not particularly adapted for dispensing various types of products having particle sizes ranging from sugar to dried fruit to hardware products. Further, many such dispensers fail to provide the customer with continuous visual inspection of the dispensed product and accurate measurement of the quantity of product being dispensed.